Piper PA-15 Vagabond (oz15136)

About this Plan

Piper PA-15 Vagabond. Radio control scale model. Wingspan 1370 mm, for 2.5 cc engines.

Quote (google-translated): "Recreational RC model Piper PA-15 Vagabond. Design: Jaroslav Fara.

The model is designed after an American sports aircraft, manufactured in 1947. The three-view drawing was published in Letecký modelá? 8/1962.

Like the original, the model is intended for sports and recreational flying. It is made entirely of balsa wood - except for the bulkheads and fuselage longitudinals and wing spar strips. All necessary material and its dimensions are shown on the drawing. The engine, tank and parts of the RC kit are not shown, to which each modeler will certainly adapt their model when redrawing the drawing to real size. Fuselage. The basis is formed by sidewalls, reinforced with longitudinals and crossbars.

The fuselage is built 'by hand', so pay attention to its symmetry. We first connect the side panels with partitions, then glue their rear ends and then glue the crossbars. The left side panel is in one piece, the right one is interrupted at partition 2 and the separated part is connected to the removable part of the engine cover.

We build the wing on a workbench, the outer parts separately including the rigid cover. We press the rigid cover of the lower side of the wing to the structure with washers. We connect the finished outer parts by assembling the middle part of the wing; however, we must first sand the lower strips of the spar according to the drawing. The wires for controlling the ailerons, stored in tubes, must be coaxial with the aileron hinges. We will assemble these when building the outer parts of the wing. The wing is attached to the fuselage at the front with a kolikren, at the back with a polyamide screw. The struts are not functional; they are inserted with wire pins into the holes in the wing and fuselage.

We glue the tail surfaces from balsa boards and glue them to the fuselage.

The landing gear is attached to the fuselage with two metal straps and two pairs of M3 bolts and nuts. The struts 7 and S are wrapped at the bottom with thin wire and soldered; the space between them is sealed with balsa and covered with monofilament. The spur from the wire to the bicycle wheel is rotatable with a threaded end in a nut glued to the fuselage. The spur is connected to the rudder with a wire spring soldered to the spur.

Engine group. A powerful engine with a displacement of 1.8 cm3 to 3.2 cm3 (with which the prototype flew) with speed control can be used for propulsion. Depending on the engine used, it is necessary to adjust the spacing of the engine beams. There are holes in the mask 8 and the partition 1 for the access of cooling air; the air leaves through a hole in the lower part in front of the partition 2.

Cover. We glaze the cabin with a transparent plastic U-shaped sheet, which we press into the balsa up to the level of the outer surface of the sidewalls. We cover the fuselage and tail surfaces with thin paper, and cover the wing with medium-thick paper. The surface finish is standard.

Color. The entire model is deep yellow, the leading edge of the wing, the strip on the fuselage and the engine mask are blue, the license plate is black.

The RC kit has four servos that control the rudders, ailerons and engine speed. However, a device with two servos will also suffice - then the engine needs to be adjusted to a suitable constant speed and the wing pitch increased to about 5 to 6°. The rods for the rudders are made of balsa with a cross section of 7 x with wire ends, a flexible rod leads to the engine.

Flying is pleasant. It should be remembered that all control surfaces are relatively large and therefore effective, so the transmitter control sticks must be handled sensitively. It is better to adjust the rudder and aileron deflections to smaller ones to start with."

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